Fighters.com fourth-ranked middleweight “Great” Nate Marquardt (29-8-2) is a man many should take notice of as he is not only a great fighter but an amazing human being. Nate was just recently named the Sharon Antcliff Foundation’s “True Warrior” for 2009.

The Sharon Antcliff Foundation (SAF) is a charity that  works to help families who have a loved one suffering from young-onset Alzheimer’s.

As you read this, there are roughly 500,000 diagnosed cases of young-onset Alzheimer’s in the United States. Those families face a battle every day, not just against the disease, but against the impact it has on their family, their relationships, their finances, and their way of life.

Young-onset Alzheimer’s can strike those in their 50s, 40s, and even their 30s. This disease does not care who it attacks. It doesn’t care if you’re under 65. It doesn’t care if your grandchild was just born. It doesn’t care if you still want to travel. It doesn’t care if you’re making the money that supports your family. It doesn’t care if you still have kids at home that need a parent full time. And it doesn’t care that there are nearly no programs set up to help these families. SAF does and works towards these goals each and every day.

Kevin Antcliff, whose mother Sharon passed away due to this disease, formed this organization to help those families struggling. He then set up the SAF Warriors program with the purpose of finding others willing to stand in the corners of young-onset victims and caregivers as they fight the effects of this cruel disease every day of their lives. Nate is one of these Warriors.

Nate was approached by the director through Facebook on what he admits was nothing more than a shot in the dark. He asked Nate to help promote a local cause with national aspirations and amazingly Nate agreed.

Nate was named the winner of the Tequilla Cazadores Spirit Award before his fight at UFC 102. At this time Nate named SAF as the recipient of a grant on his behalf. Nate’s involvement with SAF Warriors and the Sharon Antcliff Foundation has allowed them to gain access they otherwise may not have had to the MMA community. Within the MMA community the foundation has found people willing to spread their message, seek donations, seek volunteers and help them to foster relationships. Perhaps the most important aspect of all is that Nate is doing this an has asked for nothing in return. Something we rarely find anymore, a straight from the heart act of kindness and generosity.

Today as MMA looks to move forward and become one of the top sports in the world, men like Nate are needed more than ever. These are the stories we should be telling rather than allowing the main stream media to focus on the post-fight antics like we saw at UFC 100 with UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar (4-1).

Nate truly is a hero and an unsung one at that. Nate will get plenty of press for his fight with seventh-ranked middleweight Chael Sonnen (23-10-1) at UFC 109 on February 6 and sadly this story, his involvement and the Sharon Antcliff Foundation will likely go unnoticed.

The sport of MMA can use this type of publicity and can take a lesson from the NFL who is always spotlighting players and the charities they work with.

If you would like to learn more about SAF Foundation or SAF Warriors you can visit them at http://sharonantclifffoundation.org and http://www.safwarriors.org/. Let’s all take the time to thank Nate for being a true hero a positive role model in mixed martial arts.

There are many fans and journalists of MMA that look at men like Randy and Mark and see old guys that are to stubborn to know when to tap out of a sport they have been apart of for over a decade. I see men who still have that drive to fight and believe that they can still stand inside the Octagon with the men half their age.

Randy has shows time and time again that you can never count him out. He lost at UFC 57 to Fighters.com eighth-ranked light heavyweight “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-7) and after that fight many thought Randy was done and that he should retire. His next fight saw him move up to the heavyweight division to fight for the title against”Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (25-6) in Columbus, Ohio at UFC 68. His detractors said he was old, had not done well at heavyweight in the past and that Tim was just to much for the old guy. Then as if out of spite, Randy shocked the world by knocking Tim done in the first exchange of the fight. Nationwide Arena was on their feet and rocking and through five rounds became what I believe to be the loudest crowd at an MMA fight in the history of the sport. Randy won a unanimous decision, the UFC heavyweight title and some respect that night. Moments like this are what sports are all about.

Mark Coleman is a legend in the sport as well and has had some of the best fights in the sport in Pride and the UFC. His return to the Octagon was one many cringed at due to the fact that Mark looked run down, only a fraction of the fighter he was once. He changed some training methods and decided to get back in the Octagon once again. He lost his “Welcome Back” fight at UFC 93 against third-ranked “Shogun” Mauricio Rua (18-4)in a fight that ended in a TKO but was very lackluster in that both fighters seemed to be running on empty after the first round. It was back to the drawing board for Mark and fans spoke loudly about his inability to compete in the UFC at his age. UFC 100 rolled around and Mark was facing The Ultimate Fighter fan favorite Stephan Bonnar (11-6). Shocking almost everyone in the sport, Coleman won a via unanimous decision. He was back and ready for war once again.

This week we have heard rumors of yet another legend in MMA coming back to the UFC to do battle inside the Octagon. The always rousing “The Predator: Don Frye (20-8-1) was talked about by Dana White in a report from the Bleacher Report. Dana said “I’m not saying Don Frye’s coming back to fight in the UFC,” What I’m saying is, Don Frye’s coming back to dominate the UFC. I called Don Frye and asked him if he was in fact coming back to the UFC. He told me he could not lie to a man of the cloth (although my title is Reverend it is merely for the sake of marrying friends) so he would not comment on that question. Don’s silence on the issue leads me to only one conclusion, he will be back inside the Octagon if for nothing else than for a one fight deal. I can see Don stepping inside the Octagon after the Coleman and Couture fight to challenge Coleman. After all, he did lose to him back at UFC 10: The Tournament via TKO due to punishment.

Don is such a popular fighter amongst the hardcore fans that many will love seeing him back as he is a fighter that displays true grit and told me on MMA Gospel Radio that it is a fighters job to not tap. You fight until you lose and never give up. How will the casual fan that may not remember Don Frye see his return?

Yet another fighter in his middle 40s trying to hang with the boys or as a grizzled veteran hungry for more and ready to once again go to war? Guys like Don Frye, Mark Coleman and Randy Couture dominated the sport at one time and I feel they still have that fight like Randy versus Tim Sylvia in them to bring the crowd to their feet and make us rethink our opinion of legends getting back to action. They have been the elite in the sport at one time and in my opinion they always will have that level of commitment and the shear will to keep fighting and hold on to that status.

Martial arts have always revolved around respect and has been the selling point for may parents who enroll their children in arts such as karate, tae kwon do or jiu jitsu. It was no surprise to me when I watched the sport of MMA start to blossom that we witnessed the same respect seen in dojos around the world. Now the sport is pushing to become more main stream and with that push we are watching respect for ones fellow combatant slowly begin to degrade and I have to wonder why this is the case.

MMA, in it’s push to become a top tier sport, needs to ride high on the back’s of it’s best athletes. Fighters such as Fighters.com and UFC welterweight champion “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (19-2), middleweight champion Spider” Anderson Silva (25-4), lightweight champion “The Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-5-1) and Fighters.com top-ranked heavyweight “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (31-1). These men are the elite in MMA and as such must carry the burden of being the face of the sport. Ambassadors to the general public as well as to the people in charge of legalizing the sport in those states that are still behind the times. People all across the country are watching and some tune-in to find out what all the fuss is about.

When a fighter such as UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar (4-1) acts more like a clown after a win like he did at UFC 100, it causes some to tune out and others to feel they were right to not support something like what they just witnessed. After beating Fighters.com third-ranked heavyweight Frank Mir (13-4) Lesnar decided to run around the Octagon and flip off the crowd in attendance at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. He got in the face of Mir as Mir was being attended to by his corner and the ringside physicians. Then after all of this he decided to blast the UFC’s main sponsor of the night, Bud Light, and talk about climbing on top of his wife. Exactly what I expected from a former pro wrestler but not what we expect to see in MMA. Yes, it is cage fighting but it has become it’s own martial art and should be respected.

I understand that fighters need to market themselves to sell fights and some take the role as villain in these pre-fight interviews we so often see. However, many of these men admit to doing just that, selling a fight. Once the fight is over these men can often be seen congratulating one another and showing much respect for the person they just went to war with inside the Octagon. Some fighters believe that your last fight should be all that is needed to sell your next fight and I tend to agree but I also see the value in whipping up a war of words. The war of words and the role of villain should end once they step inside and are prepared to fight.

Touching gloves is a pre-fight ritual that is a show of respect. It is something we see often in boxing, muay thai and other combat sports. This is where all the pre-fight banter should come to an and end. A majority of the time it does but on those rare occasions two men enter who just do not like one another and thus we do not see the touching of gloves. What I would like to point out is that during these rare fights, at the end we see them shake hands and congratulate one another. It ends there and nothing further is needed to be said. This is respect and the actions of Fighters.com second-ranked “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (17-4) at DREAM’s New Year’s Eve event, DYNAMITE 2009 was a complete lack of not only respect but class.

After breaking the arm of Mizuto Hirota (9-3) he then decided to channel his inner Lesnar and flip off Hirota and the entire audience. The breaking of one’s limb can occur in MMA when the pride of one fighter gets in the way of him tapping out. I do not think Aoki is the only one at fault for what happened as the ref should have stepped in and stopped the fight. It was the actions afterward that brought the negative attention once again to our great sport.

If MMA is to truly become a main stream sport we need ensure fighters get back to showing respect for one another post-fight rather than showing a complete lack of respect for the other fighter, the fans and the sport. This is not pro wrestling and if this decline continues the critics will continue to associate the sport with just that.